An Interview with Kevin Miller
As part of our “For Such a Time as This” series, we will be interviewing individuals from our Calvary community about how Jesus is working in their life and in the lives of those around them through this time of pandemic. Each week we will interview someone new, based on the reflection questions provided by our teaching team in the previous blogpost.
This week we interviewed Mr. Kevin Miller! Kevin and his wife, Micaela, attend Calvary with their 7-month old son, William. Kevin and Micaela are missionaries with Fellowship International in the process of preparing for career missions to Pakistan. When he’s not preparing for missions or self-isolating, Kevin enjoys Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, board and card games, and hanging out with friends! During this time of social-distancing, Kevin misses seeing all of your beautiful faces every Sunday morning and hearing what God is doing in your lives (plus the odd time there sticky buns after church from Hazeldean bakery). Thanks Kevin, for sharing some of your reflections on what Jesus is doing in your life during these weird COVID days!
What emotions are associated with “corona” for you? Is there one emotion that is holding you captive?
My corona experience so far is best summed up by the word “pause.” Rolling along with that word is feelings of disappointment, uncertainty, and confusion. Micaela and I were hoping to be able to leave for Pakistan this summer. With the coronavirus pandemic, all of our plans have been put on hold. Talking with experts and our organization’s director, it sounds like we shouldn’t expect to leave until January at the absolute earliest. We suddenly went from being at almost 90% of our support and ready to go, to a big fat question mark.
We are left with so many unknowns and questions we previously didn’t need to consider. Not only are we wondering when we’ll actually be able to leave, but we also are not sure how this will affect our supporters as some people are losing jobs and businesses through this time. We now have to consider what to do when Micaela’s maternity leave is up in August. We are also wondering how we should be spending this time of pause and what ways we can be doing ministry while social distancing.
All of these questions have led to us to feel like we’ve completely lost control, we’ve been immersed in chaos, and we have a great deal of fear over the uncertainty of the future.
But this time of pause has also been positive for us. In realizing these fears have surfaced from lack of control, we have been forced to confront where we are placing our hope and trust. It has forced us to recognize that we need to bring these fears and all our uncertainty before Christ and lay it in his hands. It has also been a great time of introspection. I entered into counselling just before all this happened and having a time of pause is allowing me to delve deeper into the ways I need Christ’s grace in my life, but also the ways he lifts me up and empowers me.
During this this time of pause, we have been able to recognize and acknowledge our feelings to Christ, to receive Christ as the Living Word, to give that word of Christ to others as we share what he’s leading us through, and release the word of Christ to the world as we recognize our inability to control the world’s circumstances, and pray fervently for His deliverance and hope for the world.
Who does Christ need to be for you right now? (Comforter, Overcomer, etc) Can you look for one person to show up in your life this week who needs your prayers?
Right now, I need Christ to be my peace. I need him to be the one that says to the chaos and uncertainty we’re going through right now, “Be still and know that I am God.” I need Him to be sustainer and provider: to look out for our family as we consider how to move forward with our plans. I need him to be sovereign: that even though control is out of my hands, He is in control and He is capable of delivering and redeeming us all. And finally, I need for Christ to be the present one: to be with me through everything I go through. I need to abide with Him.
One of the Syrian refugees from the family Calvary sponsored in 2017 has a birthday this week. I will reach out to him to wish him a happy birthday and will share with him a bit of what Christ has been doing in our lives and will offer to pray for him!
Read the blogpost these questions were taken from here. Please feel free to encourage Kevin or share your own reflections on these questions in the comments below!